


Amedotweek April 2020

by NighttimePhilosopher



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Amedotweek April 2020, Day 1: April Showers, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Financial Issues, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Human AU, Hurt/Comfort, Peridot and Amethyst have all my interests and music tastes, Snippets, Swearing, an OK KO reference, elder scrollsssssss, nothing but samiches, quarantine fic, rated t for 1 sexual reference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23554549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NighttimePhilosopher/pseuds/NighttimePhilosopher
Summary: Day 1: Amethyst and Peridot’s quarantine shenanigans for prompt April Showers
Relationships: Amethyst/Peridot (Steven Universe)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Amedotweek April 2020

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! Welcome back to amedotweek, I'm a few days behind but idc  
> When I saw the prompt 'April Showers', i had to look up what it mean hgffg. Turns out its a northern hemisphere thing. But when I found out, I knew my entry had to be about the quarantine going on worldwide atm due to coronavirus. April showers bring May flowers; its bad right now and we have to stay indoors, but its for the future when everything will go back to normal and we can see and do our favourite things (mine is escape rooms!!!!).  
> That being said, enjoy guys!

Peridot opened her student emails, and the one she was looking for sat right at the top. "Oh! I just received the email. My classes as of next week are confirmed for online delivery."

"God I wish that was me with work." Amethyst groaned, flopping on the opposite couch.

"At least you have wrestling--” Peridot started, but quarantine had cancelled that too. Too much physical contact. “Oh wait."

“Yeah.” Amethyst got up and jumped on Peridot’s couch instead, jostling her and her laptop. "Guess we have to spend time togetherrrrrr~" She teased, leaning her weight on Peridot’s shoulder.

“Eugh.” Peridot poked her tongue out. “No studying, no DnD…only _you._ Practicing social isolation will be an _utter nightmare._ I cannot imagine anything _worse_.”

“You bet, ‘Dottie. You wanna play Fortnite?”

“Yes, but only if we can play Minecraft after.”

“Deal.”

* * *

“As _if_ you don’t know _Korn,_ Peridot. You didn’t live under a rock. You know _Gorillaz,_ you should at least know Korn _.”_

“My mother was shit.” Peridot explained, sipping her late-night coffee.

Amethyst took Peridot’s Youtube tab hostage, typing a song name into the search bar. “Oh, you _gotta_ listen to the drums and vocals in this! And the music video is pretty much a must-watch anyway.”

Peridot let the video load and play out in front of her, watching a mix of live action and 90s 2D animation as Amethyst started to air-drum to the washy percussion that started coming from the speakers. Amethyst started thrashing her head to the possessive, low-strung nu metal and Peridot couldn’t help but bop her head too. It got to _that bit_ in _Freak on a Leash_ and Amethyst giggled at Peridot’s bewildered face. She couldn’t have predicted what she had to say, though.

“Why is he saying,” Her voice was analytical and practiced compared to the singer’s wild babbling. “ _‘Bloom cactus bloom’?_ ”

Amethyst laughed, confused. “Hahaha, whaaaaaat?”

“He’s saying _‘Bloom cactus bloom--”_ She paused, listening to the next bar. “ _’In the plaza!’”_

“Oh my god, no!” Amethyst giggle-snorted. “He’s just saying crazy gibberish to be freaky! It doesn’t even sound like he says plaza!”

Peridot cackled, saying _‘bloom cactus bloom’_ alongside the mercilessly grungy music and Amethyst laughing out ‘noooooo’. The song finished and Peridot resumed music control. “Now _you_ need to listen a song _you_ haven’t heard before.”

“Shoot, I can take it. Unless it’s country garbage.”

“You are disgustingly punk-metal.” Peridot teased. “But, you’re not wrong.”

Amethyst watched as Peridot typed something very obscure and from the depths of the internet into the search bar--Nimbasa Core by pLasterbrain. “It is very independent.” Peridot assured, clicking play.

“ _Ooh, I only want your body~_ ” Rang a female voice that had been stylistically pitched-up. “ _You’re just like the last one, too much work and no fun--"_

“Eww, nightcore? Pffft, trash.”

“No it’s good!” Peridot radiated the energy of the knife emoji. She conceded. “If you don’t like it, we can listen to vaporwave.”

“Mmm, yeah. But we can listen to your nightcore too.” Amethyst gave her a friendly nudge. “You write to this?”

“Maybe. Yes.”

“Tasty.”

When they listened to a few more of pLasterbrain’s songs and Macintosh Plus, Amethyst snatched the laptop back. "Okay, now you gotta to listen to BaK, this Australian band--” Amethyst excitedly typed in the band and one of their songs. “-- although you wouldn't pick it with all the Indian and Middle Eastern percussion they use."

"What's Back?" Peridot leaned in and scrutinized the video title. "Oh, B-A-K. I...still don't understand what that is or what it means."

"Praise BaK." Said Amethyst, air-drumming along to the prog rock fusion sound.

* * *

“You ever read a fanfic and just _know_ the author hasn’t had sex?” Peridot commented, never looking up from her phone.

“Yeaah.” Amethyst droned back, never looking up from her DS. “Used to be you.”

“Yeah.” Peridot agreed, continuing to scroll.

* * *

Peridot looked up from her IT work at the stress in Amethyst’s voice. Peridot had tuned out the TV enough with her headphones, but Amethyst had been watching the various news broadcasts on the government measures that were being taken to stop the spread and flatten the curve.

“Fuck dude, this isn’t gonna be just for the next month. It could be the whole damn _year_.” She dropped the remote and gripped her elbow. “That’s how these things work. Then there’s flare-ups down the track. Shit.”

Peridot shifted her headphones off one ear and spun her chair around to face Amethyst and the TV, as much as her various cords let her. “It’ll be okay Amethyst, I still have my job and benefits, and we’re eligible for the payments they just announced. And we both have our commissions! We’ll be fine.”

Amethyst wasn’t sated with that though, and it showed in her scowl. “Who’s gonna commission us when no one can spend anything? And _I_ don’t got a job, remember?”

Peridot hummed and went to work again, but realized she needed to prioritise Amethyst right now. This student could wait on her software confirmation email for a bit longer.

Amethyst watched her struggle off the computer chair and come over to her. “We’re gonna chew through our savings pretty quickly if this goes on long enough. Which now it will.”

“You’re right about that.”

Amethyst made space for her on the couch. “…I’m pickin’ up on a ‘but’?”

“You are, I was just going to let you talk first because I’m practising my listening skills.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“ _But_ ,” Peridot said. “we _do_ have income coming in. That is better than many people can say.”

“It’s still _one_ income though, and it’s not like the uni won’t just decide to cut off IT services whenever they want. No matter what, we’re gonna lose out when the bills start piling up.” Peridot went to speak but Amethyst added, “Benefits ain’t the same as a job. They help, sure, and we’d be in even deeper shit without them, but they’re not my job. I can’t get overtime on fortnightly payments. Expenses change. We budget, but now they’re saying we’re gonna have to stockpile and buy more than usual. And keep doing that, at the same time rent ‘n bills are coming in and we’re pulling in half the cash we were.” Amethyst held herself close. “It’s frustrating.”

“First of all, I have confidence that IT support will be considered essential, especially now that classes have gone online. It would be _ludicrously_ foolish of them if they closed us. If anything, I may get _more_ hours. And trust me, I will take them.”

“It’s just…you don’t get it.” Amethyst’s voice grew vulnerable, and it stopped all trains of thought departing in Peridot’s head. “Aren’t you scared?”

“A-A little, I suppose.” It made her chest feel cold, to have Amethyst stripped of confidence. It ate at hers, too.

Silence grew between them because Peridot had no idea what to say. She still had a job. Rent could be covered by that and her benefits, just. It really was an uncomfortable squeeze, and Amethyst felt it worse. She couldn’t do anything about it, _indefinitely_.

She opened up her arms and Amethyst shuffled into them. Her nose nestled into her collarbone and Peridot felt her warm breath, shaky and uneven and upset. “It feels shit.”

“It’ll be okay.” Peridot spoke into Amethyst’s soft hair, but saying it wasn’t going to fix it.

Amethyst inhaled and exhaled, and Peridot squeezed her tight. “Yeah.”

“I hate living through a major historical event.”

* * *

Amethyst heard Peridot’s mouse rapidly clicking and nothing else because Peridot had her headphones on.

“That Overwatch or Elder Scrolls?” Amethyst raised her voice to let Peridot know she wasn’t talking to Netflix on the TV.

“Morrowind.” Peridot grunted, confirming she’d heard despite not moving her eyes from the laptop, continuing to ram her finger into the left mouse button. “You still need to play it.”

“Gotta clock Skyrim first.” Amethyst hummed at the impossible task, resuming her show. She downed the rest of her beer in a few gulps, sighing.

Peridot surprised her by nudging her toes into her thigh. She otherwise hadn’t budged an inch from her cross-legged gamer position. “Love you.”

Warmth filled Amethyst’s chest, and it wasn’t from the beer. “Love you too.”

* * *

“I can hear Pokémon.” Peridot came from the kitchen with two sandwiches. Quarantine had levelled her cooking skills to now include lettuce and tomato between her pieces of bread. She quirked her head as she listened to the soundtrack. “Gen four bike theme, DS sfx, Diamond-Pearl-Platinum. Which one is it?”

“Platinum.” Amethyst answered, focused on the DS. “I only play the classics.”

Peridot sat herself and Amethyst’s sandwich on the couch next to her and picked her own up, peering over Amethyst’s shoulder to watch Amethyst try to manoeuvre her bike through a cave filled with impeding rocks that she had to pull her Pokémon out for. “Your classics are my cakewalks. Gen four was great but it was where the games began being watered down. For instance, your Pokémon cures itself of poison when it gets down to one hp outside of battle? Hah! Try your last Pokémon fainting due to poison, which causes you to faint too!” 

“Dude, nothing sucks more than these screechy Zubats in the caves!” She screwed her eyes shut and sighed at another forced encounter with said screechy Pokémon. “And screw your elitism, this game’s fun and its jazz beats all the rest.”

Peridot took an agreeing bite of her cheese-lettuce-tomato. “You got that right.”

"Don't you notice everybody says that about the generations after the ones they grew up with?"

Peridot hummed in agreement, because she was right. She also chewed her sandwich for a while, mulling over something. Amethyst swapped her DS for her sandwich and ate it contently in their mutual silence.

“…Could I…commission you? I was going to ask you to draw my favourite gen one Pokémon together--like a team.”

Amethyst swallowed and shook her head. “Wha, like, with money?” Peridot nodded.

“That’s just money stayin’ within the house. Don’t even worry about it.” Amethyst swapped her half-eaten sandwich for the DS again, curling in on herself. It told Peridot she’d gone about the issue in the wrong way, the way that maybe hurt Amethyst’s pride. So she considered the next sandwich bite harder, and the next idea came faster, and more genuine.

She put down her food and straightened her back, which got Amethyst’s attention, enough to pause the game. "If that’s the case, if I paid you in kisses, would that be sufficient?"

"Whooaaa Peri-- watch the cheese, we'll get rats." Amethyst smirked, but it couldn't hide how her cheeks had darkened. She shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

"Sorry. Can I still kiss you?"

"…C'mere while I play Pokémon and find out."

Peridot scooched closer on the couch and Amethyst tucked some of her hair long behind her ear. She hummed as Peridot pecked her neck to the theme of Canalave City that floated up from the game.

"You're not even kissing to the beat." Amethyst smirked, so genuine it hurt. She had to change the subject because she was experiencing a lot of feels. "Speaking of which, you gotta finish the album art for my percussion EP."

"Okay, I will. But after the kisses. Ooo!" Peridot left her mouth on her neck as she spoke. “I want to kiss you to the Old Chateau theme! I dare you to fly there.”

“No way, I have trauma from that place.” They both giggled at that. When they settled down, Amethyst’s voice came quiet but impressed under Peridot’s little pecks. "Dang, you're kinda really sweet under all that nerd, huh?"

"What's that supposed to mean?” Peridot paused to frown. “Also, eat your sandwich, I made it for you."

“Okayyy, for you.” Amethyst picked it up and obnoxiously chewed it, opening her mouth to show her the resulting mush.

Peridot screwed up her face. “Disgusting. Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I tried a new formatting style for this chapter, I may reformat it immediately if I don't like it


End file.
